He undertook a crash course in astronomy with Pietro Baracchi from the Melbourne Observatory, whose son, Guido, Bage knew from Trinity.

On 10 November 1912, the 'southern sledging party' of three – Bage, the New Zealand magnetician Eric Webb, and the photographer Frank Hurley – left on a 600-mile round trip to study the extent of the South Magnetic Pole region.

[6] The Aurora arrived to collect them, but by 8 February, Mawson's team was now four weeks overdue, and John Davis was forced to decide whom to leave behind to conduct the search: the six men chosen, including Bage, would have to over-winter again before a ship could come back for them.

[7] The Aurora returned on 13 December 1913, and the expedition made landfall in Australia at Adelaide, Mawson's home town, on 26 February 1914, after more than two years away.

As a member of the regular army, on the outbreak of war, Bage was mobilised immediately, the preliminary orders being released on 2 August.

On 7 May, the commander of the 1st Australian Division, Major-General William Bridges, inspected the area near the 'Pimple', a salient at the southern end of the ANZAC lines, and devised a plan to take some of the Turkish trenches there.

Bage was caught in machine-gun fire from near Lone Pine and hit in several places; he was buried in the Beach Cemetery above ANZAC Cove the following day.